by Len Weiler
Blue Moon is a wonderful new film, both melancholy and brightly witty, about the last days of the brilliant lyricist, Lorenz Hart. It’s a chamber piece, taking place over one evening, almost entirely at the fabled New York theater district hangout Sardi’s. It’s beautifully directed by the great Richard Linklater [
Dazed and Confused (1993);
Before Sunrise (1995);
School Of Rock (2003),
Boyhood (2014)] and stars the inimitable Ethan Hawke in a brilliant performance, along with a terrific supporting cast including Bobby Cannavale, Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott and Patrick Kennedy.
Unless you are a devotee of musical theater, you may not be familiar with the name Lorenz Hart. Between 1920 and 1942, he was one half of the great songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart who together provided the music and lyrics for twenty-six Broadway musicals, among them Babes In Arms, The Boys from Syracuse and Pal Joey, and classic songs like Isn’t It Romantic, With a Song in My Heart, My Funny Valentine, Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered) and the movie’s title song Blue Moon.
Hart, with his manic personality, was a great raconteur and notorious social butterfly. Also a deeply unhappy person and a renowned alcoholic. Richard Rogers was the opposite – a sober, serious-minded family man, who eschewed the “high life.” By 1942, Rodgers felt that Hart had become too unreliable to work with. With a new commission in hand, Rodgers instead teamed up with another prominent lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein, Jr. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first project together was a musical called
Oklahoma! [Over the next sixteen years, until Hammerstein’s death, Rodgers and Hammerstein became the greatest songwriting team in musical theater history. In addition to
Oklahoma!, their hits include
Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and
The Sound of Music.]
Blue Moon takes place on March 23, 1943, the triumphant opening night of Oklahoma! on
Broadway. Hart is in the audience. Before the final applause dies down, he leaves and heads over to his hangout at Sardi’s. He’s not the kind of guy who sits in the corner and sulks; he needs succor, which means he needs to talk. He slides onto a bar stool and orders a whiskey and a glass of water. Eddie, the genial barkeep [Cannavale], raises an eyebrow, knowing that Hart has recently been trying to curtail his drinking. Hart says the booze is not to drink, just to look. Uh huh.
And then Hart starts to talk (and drink). He’s heartbroken. He knows that his whole life is crumbling or at the very least is under threat. But he certainly doesn’t come out and say that. He’s the great Larry Hart, for heaven’s sake! Rather, he starts to dish – on everyone and everything, whatever’s on his fervid mind. It’s a scintillating tour de force outpouring that is by turns funny, revealing, clever, perceptive, self-effacing, heartbreaking, and, under the circumstances, deceptively hopeful. Also, sublimely engaging and entertaining.
For most of us, anyway. While nearly everyone I spoke to at the Mill Valley Film Festival was enthusiastic in their praise for Blue Moon, I did meet one cinephile who was a bit lukewarm about the film. "It’s mostly just a guy doing a drunken rant at the bar", she told me. My response was that unlike most drunken bar rants, this one was by a verbally brilliant character, at perhaps the hardest moment in his life, whose “rant” was not only carefully and intelligently scripted, but delivered by a brilliantly talented actor at the top of his game.
(I am reminded of an earlier Linklater film, one of my favorites, Before Midnight (2013), the third and final film of what’s now called “The Before Trilogy”. The third act of that picture consists of a big domestic argument between the two protagonists, Jesse and Celine. One could say, I suppose, “why would I want to watch a married couple arguing?” What I said in my review, though, was “this is one of the most incredible, and incredibly real, arguments in the history of American romantic drama, and on that level, it’s exhilarating!.” Ditto for Hart’s so called “drunken rant”.]
I can’t say enough good things about Ethan Hawke’s performance as Hart. I’ve never seen him better, and I’ve seen a LOT of his work. Notwithstanding my familiarity with this actor, he is almost unrecognizable in
Blue Moon. He’s made to look a full head shorter than his actual height (Hart was under five feet tall). He sports a horrendous combover. Although Hawke has had plenty of ‘talky’ roles before, his voice is higher pitched here, and the words come very fast, manically fast, so he doesn't even sound like Hawke. This is not off-putting; it is mesmerizing. This is Ethan Hawke as you’ve never seen (or heard) him before.
For most of the movie, Hart has an audience of three: a quiet man sitting alone near the bar, who turns out to be the erudite editor, essayist, author E.B. White [Kennedy]; a G.I. on leave from the war, noodling on a nearby piano [Jonah Lees]; and Eddie, the bartender. Eventually, Rodgers [Scott] and the
Oklahoma! crew wander in for their after-party and celebration. Hart approaches Rodgers to congratulate him and to discuss their future; but Rodgers, while trying to be as diplomatic as possible, has other things on his mind. And then there is Elizabeth [Qualley] a Yale undergrad aiming for a career in set design, whom Hart has mentored in the past and has fallen in love with. It's a fantasy that has sustained him in his hour of need. In fact, he's just been rhapsodizing about her to his bar buddies. The two have a poignant, revealing tete-a-tete in the cloakroom - a fabulous scene.
It’s been said that Blue Moon could have been a stage play. True. But luckily for us it’s a movie and thus available for all of us to enjoy. From the finely wrought screenplay to Linklater’s adept direction, to Hawke’s all-in, committed performance, to the pitch perfect supporting cast, and the tragic, fascinating story about Lorenz Hart, this movie is one of the best of the year. A real gem.
Blue moon, you saw me
standing alone Without a
dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
110 minutes Rated R
Grade: A
Limited theatrical release begins 10/17/25; General release, including at Bay Area theaters, begins 10/24/25.
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